Seattle's Marchex trims workforce

Seattle's TechFlash is reporting that Marchex laid off 10 percent of its workforce yesterday as it trims redundant positions from a series of acquisitions and adjusts to the changing economy.

"Like all companies, we just want to be prudent in this environment," said company spokesman Kevin Horn. About 35 people are losing jobs, including some contractors. Horn said Marchex remains in a strong position with no debt and plenty of cash on the books. It also continues to hire for select positions.

But the company, which manages thousands of domain names and assists merchants with local advertising, scaled back its financial guidance slightly in an earnings announcement last month. It now expects revenue of $146.5 million to $148 million for the year and $35 million to $36.5 million for the fourth quarter.

That compares to revenue of $37.2 million during the third quarter. At the time of the financial report, Marchex CEO Russ Horowitz called the current economic climate for advertisers "challenging."

Layoffs continue to mount across the tech industry. In this case Marchex can co-blame redundancies resulting from aquisitions AND the economy - fair and legitimate reasons presented transparently.

Unlike Apax Partners, Paul Kedrosky called them out today for labelling economy driven job cuts on an "Employee Assessment Program". Right.